The service – known as Onsite Hardware Support Services – was launched in the UK earlier this month and means that instead of outsourcing its hardware support to a third party, the distributor has a team of in-house engineers on hand ready to replace faulty boxes or fix minor technical problems.

Initially, Computerlinks had engineers in five locations around the UK – Newmarket, London, Edinburgh, Bristol and Crewe. The Irish team, that is expected to be operational in four to six weeks, will be based in Dublin.

Kathryn Harding, professional services manager at Computerlinks, said: 'We managethe entire process which offers our VARs greater flexibility. They can offer services to their clients around products that are perhaps new to the market that they wouldn't have been able to offer themselves. Our Irish service has taken a little longer to launch because they have different requirements to the UK.'

At present the service covers five of Computerlinks' vendors – Check Point, Nokia, Crossbeam, Blue Coat and Network Engines – but the distributor is working on
extending the service to other hardware products including F5 and Juniper.

'We can cover anything from small appliances to huge Crossbeam deployments,' Harding said, adding that resellers have an added incentive to selling the services in the form of additional discounts.

Kevin Thiele, regional director for the UK at Blue Coat, said: 'Customers need the best level of support and therefore it is vital that our VARs can offer a strong services wrap around. We are very impressed with the new Computerlinks services offering and the high levels of investment that it has made in this area.'